Ron - great to see you again! That first shot is pretty awesome. Was that person stationary or moving through that area? Great capture regardless!
Joe - that train show would be a lot of fun. Especially with the kids. Could also be a good opportunity to try a tilt/shift lens?

I liked this angle from the 'back' side of the Lincoln Memorial, particularly the shape of the tree at the left side:

And a few from the Jefferson Memorial:

All with the 50 Lux ASPH & M9

Spent too much time at the Lincoln and wandering around. By the time I figured out where to park for the Jefferson, the sun had almost set. Wish I'd gotten there at least 10 minutes earlier in order to play more with the light and colors...

No, not defecting to Sony, though the RX1 is very, very tempting. Rather, have just been busy with other things. One of which was some reorganization and remodeling at home. There is a pressing need to find storage efficiencies! I've also suddenly become very interested in the creative possibilities of do-it-yourself LED light installations. Anyway, all the better to find long lost junk. Seems to happen once every 10 years or so. Also kind of depressing to see the mountains of negatives I'd still like to digitize...

Joe - love the train images and I'd be all over that kind of show, if only for reminiscing. Coincidentally, while reorganizing, I came across my two most favourite magazines of my grade school period: "Railroads you can model" and "Scenery for Model Railroads." These were the sources of countless hours spent daydreaming as I put together my railroad sets. Starting at around age 7, I must have driven the staff of the hobby shop down the street from home nuts with my constant after school visits to ogle the various engines, cars, etc... I started out with HO but then decided on N scale because I could fit a much more elaborate track plan onto a 4x8 sheet of particle board. The train interest continued through middle school, but by this time photography was competing for my attention and pretty much took priority by the time I was in high school, though during that time I still built a lot of model kits (primarily WWII era)... A grade school friend's father had a nice HO set in the basement, which was where most of my HO collection ended up. His grandfather built amazing working scale model steam engines from scratch. These things were huge - 3-4 feet long...

I haven't built a model kit, or something similar in probably almost 20 years now... but the recent tinkering around home is kind of rekindling that interest. I'm not sure, but maybe photography is becoming too much 'work' and is no longer enough of a hobby, though I still love it. I have to admit, the last few months have been somewhat of a dry spell in terms of motivation to step out the door and do personal work. Maybe I need a different hobby for some variety?

Sorry to hear about the banding. I guess it doesn't happen all the time? That would be annoying and unfortunately seems too reminiscent of the M9...

I've noticed M 240s are more easily found now... still debating whether to try one for weddings this year.

Gary, sorry, missed your post: Great work with the 21 SEM. For the a7R vs. M9 shootout, I got to try the ZM25 for the first time, and was very impressed with it. I'm not sure I really *need* another lens, especially considering it's a 'long' 25mm, therefore being pretty close to 28mm... but will certainly keep an eye out for one at a good price. I would probably find it more useful than keeping my ZM21/2.8, which currently gets use only when doing these shootouts.

The shadow and the shadowy guys in that series were all part of a small group doing a photo shoot around the back side of the memorial where almost no one seems to venture. Two of them were possibly politicians, or of that sort... They tended to stay put so I could play with some options. Most tourist climb the steps to see Lincoln, grab a few selfies or with friends, then head back down. I ended up exploring around the back side for maybe an hour and these guys were there most of the time.

I posted this one before:

21 SEM cropped somewhat. Here's the photographer being asked to grab a group shot with someone's iPad. The things you do to keep clients happy...

Leica Akademie workshop this weekend in Los Angeles. While they had the full M System catalog available for loan, I shot everything with my M Monochrom and 1937 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f/1.5 Sonnar and Leica 24mm f/3.8 Elmar-M ASPH.

Here are my best six images from the Leica workshop this weekend. The first three are based on the theme "Diffuse", the second three "Portrait"

Rory, congrats on the M8
Joakim, great steet captures!
Phil, excellent series with the M-M! Love the capture with the M and 35 Cron Asph
Joe, wonderful set!! Love the rendering with the 50 Cron V5
Charlie, love the life in your images!
Gary, beautiful captures! Working magic with the 21 SEM Love the composition of the B&W shots.
Brian, very nice!
Ron, great to see you are back! Wonderful series of compositions and images. Love the timing I love the color versions.
Asiafish, really imaginative images! Tough to beat the M-M
Jam, very nice!

Gary, those 21SEM shots are excellent, especially the first one.
Ron, great lighting on that second set. These reminds me of another set of columns you shot with your ZM lenses in Germany many ions back. The ipad shot is superb, love it!
Phil, 6x6 format shot looking good. How do you like the 35Cron so far?
asiafish, excellent set, the portrait theme shots are great.

jojomon11 wrote:
Thanks for likes and comments all
Joe, I don't have a M9 yet , nice train shots, no dust on them , still need to work on my color PP

I had the banding happen to me also just once and it never replicated again, I might have had a cheaper sd card inserted FWIW
Phil
Phil, there are pros out there who can weather these "toy" trains for you, actually quite realistic I put "toy" in inverted commas because these model trains can turn out to be a very obsessive hobby and cost as much as a medium format digital setup

I've seen banding when shooting at high ISOs (=>ISO3200) but that was only noticeable at pp stage. This is the first time I see a line across the rear LCD. I took a few more shots this morning but could not replicate it (yet).

BrianVS wrote:
$30 Canon 50/1.4 FL mount, converted to RF coupled M-Mount, on the M Monochrom. you beat with with that combo and a nice shot! I paid KEH $40 for my OM 50 1.8, not too bad. I better start picking up some Canon FD lenses before the rest of the Sony A7/R shooters buy them all up..

rscheffler wrote:
No, not defecting to Sony, though the RX1 is very, very tempting.
Just buy it I still have mine, no plans to sell. IQ is great but its still too fiddly for me and battery life sucks. If only it had manual focus hard stops, I could seriously use it as an alternative to Leica M for 35mm. I do use AF face tracking and stabilized movie mode for some family pics though.

rscheffler wrote:
I've also suddenly become very interested in the creative possibilities of do-it-yourself LED light installations.
Photography related LED lights or X'mas decorative lights?

rscheffler wrote:
Joe - love the train images and I'd be all over that kind of show, if only for reminiscing. Coincidentally, while reorganizing, I came across my two most favourite magazines of my grade school period: "Railroads you can model" and "Scenery for Model Railroads." These were the sources of countless hours spent daydreaming as I put together my railroad sets. Starting at around age 7, I must have driven the staff of the hobby shop down the street from home nuts with my constant after school visits to ogle the various engines, cars, etc... I started out with HO but then decided on N scale because I could fit a much more elaborate track plan onto a 4x8 sheet of particle board. The train interest continued through middle school, but by this time photography was competing for my attention and pretty much took priority by the time I was in high school, though during that time I still built a lot of model kits (primarily WWII era)... A grade school friend's father had a nice HO set in the basement, which was where most of my HO collection ended up. His grandfather built amazing working scale model steam engines from scratch. These things were huge - 3-4 feet long...

I haven't built a model kit, or something similar in probably almost 20 years now... but the recent tinkering around home is kind of rekindling that interest. I'm not sure, but maybe photography is becoming too much 'work' and is no longer enough of a hobby, though I still love it. I have to admit, the last few months have been somewhat of a dry spell in terms of motivation to step out the door and do personal work. Maybe I need a different hobby for some variety?...Show more →
Ah, finally a train buff and a nice story Actually, I would have though every other Leica shooter on this thread would be onto modelling trains, so many similarities - craftsmanship, history, hand finished, beautiful, childhood memories, and not forgetting model trains can also drain out the retirement funds akin to photography gear..

Ron, I'm sure you know, the hobby is changing. H0 is still the most popular and I'm sure you have heard of DCC trains and controls? All you need is two hardwires to power up the track (aux power for accessories still required) but with this, you can control boatloads of trains and even program delays and track sequencing. Plus the train sounds and LED lighting add another dimension to the hobby.. might be a good time to clear some space in the basement now?

I got my first electric train set when I was probably 6-7 years old. It was modeled after a British diesel passenger train set. The locomotive and transformer has since gone missing but I still have the passenger coaches. Still brings back lots of great memories.

rscheffler wrote:
I've noticed M 240s are more easily found now... still debating whether to try one for weddings this year.
Buy! Have you tried one? I find the faster buffer and weather sealing alone worth it for pro/assignment work.

Gary Clennan wrote:
Joe - that train show would be a lot of fun. Especially with the kids. Could also be a good opportunity to try a tilt/shift lens?

Gary, its no secret that most dads bring their kids there as an excuse for themselves to go This show was quite large, over 8 acres of floor space spread out over 4 large buildings. They also have lots of activities to keep the children entertained while the dad's go look for toys on their own I didn't try tilt lenses, especially with moving trains, I was shooting at quite fast apertures.

uhoh7->I had scopar last summer,very sharp lens,but colors on m9 very cold.zeiss 35 2.8 also very sharp,but colors I don't like too on my m9.sold those.never had voightlander fast wide lens 1.2 or 1.4.finally I ordered new toy-35lux FLE
gary clennan-->I m use 1.4x magnifier for my AA90 for focusing,but at f2 or f4 just difficult to focus too.about 50% only clear shots..in 2-5m. last 2years AA90 was my favorite lens on m9